If the employee made after-tax contributions to the non-Roth 401(k) account, these amounts are commingled with the pre-tax funds and simply add to the non-Roth 401(k) basis. When distributions are made the taxable portion of the distribution will be calculated as the ratio of the non-Roth contributions to the total 401(k) basis. The remainder of the distribution is tax-free and not included in gross income for the year.
A Rollover IRA is an account that allows you to move funds from your old employer-sponsored retirement plan into an IRA. With an IRA rollover, you can preserve the tax-deferred status of your retirement assets, without paying current taxes or early withdrawal penalties at the time of transfer. A Rollover IRA can provide a wider range of investment choices that may meet your goals and risk tolerance, including stocks, bonds, CDs, ETFs, and mutual funds.
Our work begins with an in-depth review of plan strategy and status, and continues with administration, implementation and monitoring of all aspects of the plan. Our experts bring decades of practical experience, working alongside plan advisors, sponsors and participants to create and manage retirement plans that benefit sponsors and participants now and into the future.
If the employee made after-tax contributions to the non-Roth 401(k) account, these amounts are commingled with the pre-tax funds and simply add to the non-Roth 401(k) basis. When distributions are made the taxable portion of the distribution will be calculated as the ratio of the non-Roth contributions to the total 401(k) basis. The remainder of the distribution is tax-free and not included in gross income for the year.
Account owners must begin making distributions from their accounts by April 1 of the calendar year after turning age 70 1/2 or April 1 of the calendar year after retiring, whichever is later.[15] The amount of distributions is based on life expectancy according to the relevant factors from the appropriate IRS tables.[16] For individuals who attain age 70 1/2 after December 31, 2019, distributions are required by April 1 of the calendar year after turning age 72 or April 1 of the calendar year after retiring, whichever is later.[17]
The IRA Rollover was born out of The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). It was important because it could help older taxpayers satisfy their required minimum distribution (RMD) requirements while obtaining their charitable giving goals. It permitted individuals to roll over up to $100,000 from an individual retirement account (IRA) directly to a qualifying charity without it being included in their gross income. The Act expired and was extended several times until it was made permanent in 2015.
The first thing to know about a 401(k) rollover to IRA is that not everyone can do it. If you’re still working for the company, for example, you probably can’t roll money out of your 401(k) into an IRA. However, you may be eligible for a rollover IRA if your employer’s plan allows in-service distributions, if you get a short-term layoff or if your company is acquired or reorganized.
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 made automatic enrollment a safer option for employers. Prior to the Pension Protection Act, employers were held responsible for investment losses as a result of such automatic enrollments. The Pension Protection Act established a safe harbor for employers in the form of a "Qualified Default Investment Alternative", an investment plan that, if chosen by the employer as the default plan for automatically enrolled participants, relieves the employer of financial liability. Under Department of Labor regulations, three main types of investments qualify as QDIAs: lifecycle funds, balanced funds, and managed accounts. QDIAs provide sponsors with fiduciary relief similar to the relief that applies when participants affirmatively elect their investments.[35]
The first thing to know about a 401(k) rollover to IRA is that not everyone can do it. If you’re still working for the company, for example, you probably can’t roll money out of your 401(k) into an IRA. However, you may be eligible for a rollover IRA if your employer’s plan allows in-service distributions, if you get a short-term layoff or if your company is acquired or reorganized.
Failure to deposit funds on time will mean your rollover funds will be taxable as income. If you’re less than age 59 1/2, you’ll also have to pay a 10 percent early distribution penalty. If you complete your rollover late, in addition to taxes and penalties your rollover funds may be treated as excessive contributions and taxed 6 percent each year they remain in your rollover IRA.
According to the Council of Foundations, “such distributions do not count as qualified distributions from IRAs under these special rules, donors will have to first recognize those distributions as income. They then must calculate their charitable deduction according to the general rules pertaining to percentage limitations and itemized contribution reductions discussed below.”
Even if we assume that most Americans will get Social Security income, where the average benefit is roughly $16,000 per year (as of November 2016, see here), and that the median balance at retirement is $130,000, this article suggests this is reasonable, the math doesn’t look good. With a 4% withdrawal rate over 30 years, this gives our average American retiree $21,200 a year to live off. Now this is better than living off of dog food, but I doubt $1,766 a month will be a “comfortable” retirement for most Americans.
According to the IRS, a donor-advised fund is defined as a fund or account that separately identified and operated by a section 501(c)(3) organization, which is termed a supporting organization. Once the account is established, the supporting ownership owns and has control over it. The donor, however, has non-binding advisory privileges with respect to the distribution or investment of the funds. Because of the charitable purpose of the DAF, there are other rules that must be adhered to:
In the early 1970s, a group of high-earning individuals from Kodak approached Congress to allow a part of their salary to be invested in the stock market and thus be exempt from income taxes.[4] This resulted in section 401(k) being inserted in the then-current taxation regulations that allowed this to be done. The section of the Internal Revenue Code that made such 401(k) plans possible was enacted into law in 1978.[5] It was intended to allow taxpayers a break on taxes on deferred income. In 1980, a benefits consultant and attorney named Ted Benna took note of the previously obscure provision and figured out that it could be used to create a simple, tax-advantaged way to save for retirement. The client for whom he was working at the time chose not to create a 401(k) plan.[6] He later went on to install the first 401(k) plan at his own employer, the Johnson Companies[7] (today doing business as Johnson Kendall & Johnson).[8] At the time, employees could contribute 25% of their salary, up to $30,000 per year, to their employer's 401(k) plan.[9]
Not surprisingly, states with higher life expectancies and higher costs of living (like Hawaii) require the highest retirement savings. However, regardless of where they live, most Americans are not saving enough in order to fund their retirement. Some think that the solution could be making saving mandatory, with the government stepping in to divert a certain percentage of an individual’s earnings to a savings or retirement account. Others believe taxing the rich more is the way to go in order to strengthen Social Security, which provides the primary source of retirement income for many Americans. In addition, focusing new policies on developing affordable housing for the elderly could alleviate financial pressures for retirees.
These loans have been described[by whom?] as tax-disadvantaged, on the theory that the 401(k) contains before-tax dollars, but the loan is repaid with after-tax dollars. While this is precisely correct, the analysis is fundamentally flawed with regard to the loan principal amounts. From your perspective as the borrower, this is identical to a standard loan where you are not taxed when you get the loan, but you have to pay it back with taxed dollars. However, the interest portion of the loan repayments, which are essentially additional contributions to the 401(k), are made with after-tax funds but they do not increase the after-tax basis in the 401(k). Therefore, upon distribution/conversion of those funds the owner will have to pay taxes on those funds a second time.[14]
Direct rollover – If you’re getting a distribution from a retirement plan, you can ask your plan administrator to make the payment directly to another retirement plan or to an IRA. Contact your plan administrator for instructions. The administrator may issue your distribution in the form of a check made payable to your new account. No taxes will be withheld from your transfer amount.

“The ability to rollover retirement assets can lead to a simpler retirement strategy with more control over investment choices. If an individual has had multiple employers throughout their working career, he or she most likely have multiple retirement accounts. It can become easy to lose track of those accounts. Rolling those accounts over to another IRA or potentially even a Roth IRA can drastically simplify an overall portfolio. While funds are in a 401(k)/403(b), investment options are limited to what the company has approved. Once a rollover is completed, a client has access to a much larger pool of investment options.” — Ben Koval, Financial Planner, Decker Retirement Planning

Employers are allowed to automatically enroll their employees in 401(k) plans, requiring employees to actively opt out if they do not want to participate (traditionally, 401(k)s required employees to opt in). Companies offering such automatic 401(k)s must choose a default investment fund and savings rate. Employees who are enrolled automatically will become investors in the default fund at the default rate, although they may select different funds and rates if they choose, or even opt out completely.[33]

For accumulated after-tax contributions and earnings in a designated Roth account (Roth 401(k)), "qualified distributions" can be made tax-free. To qualify, distributions must be made more than 5 years after the first designated Roth contributions and not before the year in which the account owner turns age 59, unless an exception applies as detailed in IRS code section 72(t). In the case of designated Roth contributions, the contributions being made on an after-tax basis means that the taxable income in the year of contribution is not decreased as it is with pre-tax contributions. Roth contributions are irrevocable and cannot be converted to pre-tax contributions at a later date. (In contrast to Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs), where Roth contributions may be re characterized as pre-tax contributions.) Administratively, Roth contributions must be made to a separate account, and records must be kept that distinguish the amount of contribution and the corresponding earnings that are to receive Roth treatment.

The traditional process of doing an IRA rollover can be somewhat cumbersome and leave account holders with a lot to manage. As a result, most people don’t use a traditional 60-day rollover process to establish a rollover IRA unless they want access to their retirement funds for 60 days as part of 401(k) business funding. Instead, they use direct transfers.

According to the IRS, a donor-advised fund is defined as a fund or account that separately identified and operated by a section 501(c)(3) organization, which is termed a supporting organization. Once the account is established, the supporting ownership owns and has control over it. The donor, however, has non-binding advisory privileges with respect to the distribution or investment of the funds. Because of the charitable purpose of the DAF, there are other rules that must be adhered to: